It’s Banned Books Week, so be sure to “celebrate” by reading or recommending a banned or challenged book. It’s not just Sex by Madonna that appears on the banned/challenged list, some really great books are also there. A few of my most memorable:
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson. I can remember reading this in elementary school and crying at the end and loving the story and the writing. It’s always stuck with me.
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. What teen hasn’t identified with Holden Caulfield at some point in their life? Reading this book led me to reading other Salinger works, which led to me completely falling in love with Franny and Zooey, which remains one of my favorite books ever.
Forever by Judy Blume. My first experience with reading about sex in fiction. The book was first published in 1975; I read it in the 1990s and it still spoke to me. The story and the emotions are timeless, along with Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret, another of Judy Blume’s books also on the banned/challenged list.
How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell. Deliciously disgusting. ;P I always associate this book with the image of my cousin daring to eat worms when we were kids.
You can find more banned/challenged books here and get information on what you can do to fight censorship in your area.
How on earth is BTT banned??? I actually forced my students to read it…sigh.
I wish the site would tell why the books were banned or challenged. I suspect most are because of the language in them (Catcher in particular), but yeah, I don’t know why someone might object to BTT. It’s a great story with beautiful writing!
Comments are closed.